The San Marcos Chamber of Commerce has named the former Schertz economic development director to head up business recruitment and retention here.

If the appointment is approved by the San Marcos city council, Amy Madison will take over the city’s economic development efforts after a tumultuous two years during which the city withdrew its contract for providing the services from the chamber and awarded it to a private company that had previously specialized in foreign trade consulting.

During six years as an economic development and planning director for the city of Schertz, Madison coordinated projects including a 400-acre distribution and warehousing park in a partnership with Cross & Co. and Trammell Crow Co. She also helped Valero Energy Corp. locate a 200-job distribution facility to the city, according to news reports. She owns Madison 5 Consulting, an economic development firm, and was vice chair of the Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s transportation advisory board.

She will earn $85,000 a year plus a $400 a month car allowance.

Madison “brings a wealth of experience in the economic development field including business recruitment/retention/redevelopment, budget oversight, program development and implementation, incentive negotiation and public relations. During her eight years as an economic development practitioner, she has also successfully built public/private partnerships and has done strategic planning, branding, and market analysis,” Bruce Tifft, the economic development board chair, wrote council members in recommending her hiring.

Madison resigned her position in Schertz in November to help care for her and husband David’s three adult children living with a rare genetic disorder that causes muscle coordination loss and immune system failure, according to a September profile in the San Antonio Express-News. She is active raising funds and awareness for ataxia-telangiectasia, which afflicts only 500 people nationwide but may hold a key to a cancer cure, the article states.

In January, Madision took a job as Leon Valley’s development services director, according to news reports.

The city’s failed attempt at privatizing its economic development services ended with Global Marketeer Group’s two-year contract term last year. The job was returned to the chamber without the controversy surrounding the bidding process in 2005 that saw the chamber lose the contract after more than 25 years.

Shortly after the transition back to the chamber, former economic development director Kim Moore took a job in Dallas, leaving the position vacant since November.